Appreciative Inquiry & Non-Violent Communication
North Star Family Matters Magazine
Last year, North Star Family Matters, a new parenting magazine, hit the scene. It's filled with excellent articles utilizing techniques such as Appreciative Inquiry, Non-Violent Communication, and EFT. Mary and I met with Editor-in-Chief Wendy Garrido and Operations Manager Prem Carnot, and we quickly realized that we share a similar philosphy: "parenting is about commitment, inspiration and empowerment."
One major focus of North Star Family Matters is Appreciative Inquiry which Mary uses in her parent coaching and in parenting workshops. A good explanation of this technique is posted on the North Star Family Matters Web site:
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is based on an idea that many of us are already familiar with—that what we focus upon tends to increase. Founded in the business world1, AI explores current successes and how they happened instead of focusing upon problems. Emphasizing success helps recreate the excitement and passion of those events and motivates everyone to discover new ways to make peak experiences a more frequent occurrence.
To read more on Appreciative Inquiry, visit the magazine's Web site.
Another important focus of the magazine is Non-Violent Communication. Non-violent Communication strengthens our ability to respond compassionately and to inspire similar understanding from others.
Personally, I am a strong proponent of Non-violent Communication. I've seen it work so many times. My favorite example of successful Non-violent Communication is the story of a teenage boy named Matt who asked his father to join him in NVC training. Matt was tired of his father's outbursts and constant criticism. At first, the father refused to go, but Matt attended a session on his own. When he engaged his father in a conversation using some of the NVC terms, Matt realized that his father's actions were the result of his own upbringing. In reality the father did not feel good about his parenting style. Together Matt and his father broke down the barriers to true communication and found common ground by joining a local NVC program.
We'll save the explanation of EFT and our introduction of North Star Family Matters editors (Wendy, Prem and Sue) for the next Blog entry. Stay tuned.
